


Pick Up

by heronmint



Category: Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Angst, I dont know how to tag, M/M, Not Beta Read, features cleanaholic minhyun, im really sorry, kang daniel - Freeform, kind of heavy angst, ong seongwoo - Freeform, twist - Freeform, youve been warned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-25
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2019-03-23 21:48:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13797030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heronmint/pseuds/heronmint
Summary: The man’s heard the man’s voice pause and chuckle loudly for a moment. He had quite a unique voice, it sounded nice and velvety through the telephone.“ Well, you’re not the first one to say that. No it’s not Gong, it’s not Hong, but yes, Ong. Uncommon, sure, but impossible? Nope. Who are you though, you’re another one of those people about to confess their undying love to me? “Daniel almost snorted. “What? No!” he said a little too loud, “ I-I just wanted to ask you if you lost some books..or clothing... “ He said really unconvincingly, even if it was the truth.“Err, sure...but just to let you know, from what I’m hearing, I dig it. You sound cute, if you aren’t going to confess your undying love to me yet, then I want to know more about you.” Seongwoo openly flirts, bringing colour to Daniel’s cheeks immediately. This honestly wasn’t part of the plan, but Daniel couldn’t bring himself to hang up the phone.________in which Daniel & Seongwoo are connected through landline.





	Pick Up

**Author's Note:**

> hello guys! it's been a while since my last fic, hope you guys enjoy! 
> 
> music i've listened to while writing this:  
> (warning! i'm trash for davichi and huhgak!)
> 
> huhgak - the last night  
> davichi - days without you (daniel is in this!)

It all started with a simple phone call. Kang Daniel was pulled against his own will - by Minhyun - to clean the dirty and dusty attic of their apartment. It wasn’t that Daniel HATED cleaning, okay, maybe a little, but the attic was completely doused in dust, untouched for years. The previous tenants didn’t even seem to have even gone up there after all these years. Think about all those bugs...and the possibility of ghosts! Daniel didn’t want anything to do with the two things he feared most in the world. However, after the constant nagging of Minhyun and his obsession with cleaning, he had to give in. Ghosts and bugs are scary, but Minhyun could kick him out of their shared house, which is also as scary. They finally came up with a negotiation, Minhyun would settle the top of the attic while Daniel would move out all the boxes of items and sort them out. 

“See you later, if I can even see by the end of this,” Minhyun said as he determinedly put on his cleaning goggles and held a feather duster with one hand, and a rag with another, entering the dusty attic looking like a scuba diver. Admittedly it made Daniel laugh a little, but that could have been him instead, so he held his giggles in and went to the living room where all the boxes were sitting, dusty and waiting for him to clear out. One by one, he opened each box, taking out all the items inside. Books, stationary, some items of clothing... Daniel carefully arranged them in a stack accordingly so he could sort out which ones he could donate and which ones he could throw away. 

Among the books and clothing, a striking red colour popped from the bottom of the box. Curious, Daniel searched through the box, fishing out the striking red from the bottom of the box. An old telephone. Who even uses landline these days? He played around with it, a little fascinated by the old phone. It had those spinny rotating things instead of buttons, and inspecting it closer, he saw that there was a small piece of old paper taped onto the telephone. O.S.W. 25081975. Was that even a phone number? Someone foreign maybe? Maybe he was the owner of all these boxes, it would be nice he could just return everything to the owner. 

Hurriedly entering his room, Daniel held onto the red telephone one one hand as he fumbled, trying the take out the plug of his hairdryer so he could insert the plug for the telephone instead. Upon plugging in the telephone, the soft buzz from the landline could be heard. Daniel was amazed that the old red telephone could even still work. Cross legged, held the receiver against his ear with his shoulder, as he fumbled to punch in the numbers he saw on the piece of paper on the telephone. 

“Hello?” 

Daniel didn’t even know why, but he was holding in his breath. 

“Erm hi? Is this..O.S.W.???”

“Wha- ohhh, well yes, it’s Seongwoo, Ong Seong Woo”  
“Ong…? You mean Gong, right.”

The man’s heard the man’s voice pause and chuckle loudly for a moment. He had quite a unique voice, it sounded nice and velvety through the telephone. 

“ Well, you’re not the first one to say that. No it’s not Gong, it’s not Hong, but yes, Ong. Uncommon, sure, but impossible? Nope. Who are you though, you’re another one of those people about to confess their undying love to me? “

Daniel almost snorted. “What? No!” he said a little too loud, “ I-I just wanted to ask you if you lost some books..or clothing... “ He said really unconvincingly, even if it was the truth. 

“Err, sure...but just to let you know, from what I’m hearing, I dig it. You sound cute, if you aren’t going to confess your undying love to me yet, then I want to know more about you.” Seongwoo openly flirts, bringing colour to Daniel’s cheeks immediately. This honestly wasn’t part of the plan, but Daniel couldn’t bring himself to hang up the phone. He tries to plan what to say in his head and execute but all that came out was, 

 

“Kang..Kang Daniel. I have 2 cats and am 22 years old..”   
He REALLY wanted to bang his head against a wall. Failing at speaking coherently, even through the phone. 

“Daniel...foreign?? Mymy I wasn’t expecting that, you sound korean. But no worries, I’m still into it. I’m your hyung, I’m 23! I have no pets, but I do dancing, I do well in popping.” 

“I’m not foreign...I just changed my name. It was Euigeon, but it was too difficult to pronounce, so I decided to change it to Daniel. Oh..and I dance too! I do some breakdancing, been to some competitions here and there. “

“ Wow, really? Then why haven’t I seen you before? I mean, I may not know what you look like...but how could I have never noticed such a cute guy before. “ Seongwoo remarked smoothly, as another flush of red boomed on Daniel’s cheeks. 

“ I haven’t even met you yet but I can already tell that made you blush. You’re just too adorable.”  
Seongwoo added on, making Daniel blush even redder than before. Even through phone call Daniel was terrible at hiding how he felt. 

“ All right, give me a call tomorrow okay? I have to go now, good night Daniel. “ 

“ Good night “ 

Then there was the same buzzing of the old red telephone. Daniel put down the phone, as he put his hand on his cheek, trying to recollect every single possible detail of what just happened and how impossibly red and hot he got just from the voice of a complete stranger named Ong. But a complete stranger who manages to say his name in such a velvety and alluring way, and chuckles that sounded like angels singing. 

“DANIELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!” 

Right on time, Minhyun barges into Daniel’s room still clad in his scuba diver like attire holding a plunger (wait,why???) screaming. However, as soon as his eyes land on Daniel’s dazed appearance, he arched his head in confusion. 

“Minhyun. I need your help to find this guy. His name is Ong Seongwoo.”

___________

“Wait, so you’re saying that you can’t find a single Ong Seongwoo on a single facebook page, instagram OR snap?”

“Yeah, amazing right? I’m shocked as well. I even managed to find the one out of the thousands of Kim Samuels for Daehwi. But now I really can’t find a single picture of your new boy. Even with such a peculiar surname of ONG.” Minhyun looked distressed as he scrolled down the number of facebook pages. Minhyun had his own self attained title of the person who could source out anything or anyone on the internet for you. He was as extra a person could get. He scrolled through hundreds of tagged photos, google searched his name and even attempted to fish him out using tinder, but to no prevail. Not even a single trace. If even Minhyun couldn’t even find a single photo of a person named as peculiar Ong Seongwoo, it’s either that he had hidden himself way too well from social media or he is actually a 50 year old man catfishing you. 

It had been a day since he called Ong Seongwoo. Daniel sat by the bedside staring at the red telephone that sat by the floor, connected to the socket where he had plugged it in yesterday. How could he anticipate so much from someone he had met just the day before, and all he knew was his voice? He didn’t even know how he looked like, or if there was any trace of him. Should he call him? Would he anticipate Daniel’s call? 

Like clockwork, the phone rang. 

Daniel immediately slid down and picked up the receiver instantaneously.   
“Hello?”

“My pride is hurt. How could you not have called me the moment you woke up the next day?”  
The same familiar voice from yesterday chidded. 

“I’m sorry...I...didn’t know if you would actually want me to call you.” Daniel bluttered truthfully, he had never been good lies.   
“It’s okay, call me at 8pm every night from now on. I want to talk to you.” Seongwoo said smoothly. Daniel couldn’t believe how forward Seongwoo was, but he couldn’t help but let out a small smile, his heart fluttering. 

“Okay, on Mondays I can’t though, I’m working the late shift on that day.”

“Oh, you work?”

“I’m working in the small cafe down the street near Myeongdong. It’s called Coffee Bin. It’s actually just a part time job, I’m training to be a singer one day.”

“You stay near Seoul? Wow, me too! Maybe I’ll visit you there one day. A singer, huh? I wish you luck, you have a beautiful voice, I know you’ll make it big.” 

“Thank you...Seongwoo-ssi.” Daniel said, awkwardly saying Seongwoo’s name. He had never said out Seongwoo’s name out to him before. Was he saying it wrongly? It wasn’t Sungwoo, right? 

“My name sounds nice when you say it, but you can call me hyung instead.” Seongwoo said, earning a small blush to come out from Daniel’s cheeks. 

Without realising, their conversations could last for a few hours straight, but only felt like a few minutes. Daniel loved talking to Seongwoo, he liked how he could say anything and Seongwoo would act like it was the most interesting thing he had ever heard. He also liked how Seongwoo was so forward with him, never failing to fluster him and bring red to his cheeks. They talked almost every single day, taking turns to call each other. He learnt that Seongwoo’s favourite colour was red, he was just a little shorter than Daniel, and that he used to do modelling part time for hair gel and clothing stores to put some money in his pocket while studying in university. He also learnt that Seongwoo had three moles on one side of his cheek, remembering how he described it as a constellation. Daniel thought it was cute, and how he said that he wanted to see it one day for himself. Daniel wanted to see him, but most of the time, their schedules were conflicting. Seongwoo had claimed that he tried to find Daniel where he worked, but he had never seen the constellation of moles anywhere in his shop, though he scrutinised every customer closely. He suspected that Seongwoo had come on a timing when Daniel was on lunch break.   
___________

One day Daniel picked up the phone to the sound of cries. 

His heart squeezed in his chest. He had never heard Seongwoo this sad before, and it hurt his heart. Seongwoo was a playful guy by heart, he was always the one playing jokes on Daniel, always optimistic and cheering him on, giving him the motivation he needed. But this time, Seongwoo was sobbing, sniffing profusely, and all Daniel wanted to do was to give Seongwoo a hug and say that it was all okay, everything will be okay. 

“I’m...I’m so sorry, Daniel…” Seongwoo muttered between his sniffs and sobs, a painful short seconds for Daniel to even hear. 

“Hyung...don’t be sad. I’m here to comfort you, everything will be okay.” 

“Hyung... wants to see you... I want to talk to you, no… I need to talk to you. Meet me tomorrow at the Myeongdong Square at 2pm. I have no classes tomorrow, I’ll be wearing a red shirt and a denim jacket.” 

Daniel felt his heart clenched at how broken Seungwoo’s voice sounded, he could tell that he had already been crying for hours. His eyes probably swollen and cheeks puffy. 

“I love you.” Daniel bluttered out. It felt like it had been a long time due in the few weeks they had been talking, and he didn’t know what else he could say at that moment except that. 

Seongwoo made a short pause, and that was the longest few seconds in Daniel’s life, before he replied.

“I love you too.”

___________

Daniel arrived at the square. After their short conversation yesterday, his heart hadn’t been at ease. Was Seongwoo okay? Why was he crying? He couldn’t sleep properly the entire night, and he even came at 1:30pm just in case he caught sight of Seongwoo early. Myeongdong Square was as busy as ever, everyone was busy walking, looking down at thier phones, getting by with their own lives. He strained his eyes to look for the boy in a denim jacket and a constellation mole on the side of his cheek. 

Now that he thinks about it, it would be the first time he will ever meet Seongwoo. What were they now, now that he had confessed his heart to him, would they still only talk through landline? Would Seongwoo run away after seeing him? Daniel bit his lip and clenched his fists in anxiousness. He had even properly picked out his outfit for today. 

He waited. 

2pm. He was nowhere to be seen. Maybe he would be a little late.   
3pm. Maybe really bad traffic.   
4pm. Did he not recognise Seongwoo somewhere?  
5pm. He held back his tears.   
Where was he? Daniel was in a blur of anger, sadness and confusion. Seongwoo was the one that initiated the meeting, so why was he nowhere to be found? He held back his tears as he briskly walked his way home, wondering what he had done wrong for Seongwoo to ditch on their meeting. Was Seongwoo really just playing with his heart? 

Daniel slammed open the door, hurriedly shutting himself in the room. Finally allowing tears to roll down his cheeks that he had been holding in for so long. His brain told him that Seongwoo was messing with his heart, but his heart held on to the chance of it being real. The heartfelt talks and the playful banter, to the confession from yesterday. 

He went back to the red telephone, and dialled Seongwoo’s number.  
All Daniel heard was the buzz from the landline.

HIs heart broke into two. In tears, he pulled out the plug to the phone, and stormed to the cardboard box where he had taken out the red telephone out from in the first place, and threw it back in in anger. Sniffing, he looked at the red telephone he had thrown into the dusty cardboard box he had taken out from the attic. There was...something there. Underneath the telephone, were papers he had not seen before. The papers looked old and tattered, crumpled and slightly brown on the edges. Daniel picked up the papers underneath the telephone. 

They looked like love letters...no, more like a diary. They were letters written in beautiful cursive handwriting, and they about heartbreak a poor man had suffered from. 

I’m sorry.  
I don’t know what I had done wrong, but ever since that day, you never picked up my calls again. I waited for you for 5 hours, but you didn’t show up. No one called out my name as beautifully as you did. It broke my heart, it broke me. Where are you? Are you living well? Life has been stressful lately, my parents had been against me being involved with you, after they found out that I was talking to you every night. They were going to cut off all contact with me if I didn’t stop. I wanted to talk about that face to face with you, I really was planning to not give up on you. You made me happy again, you were accepting for who I was, you laugh as if I am the funniest person in the world, you blush every time I everytime I say anything remotely flirty, and you were always honest with me. I was happy.   
For that, thank you. I miss you.   
Love, Ong.   
24/2/1978

Ong...there was only one Ong he knew. Ong Seongwoo. Daniel paused. His grip on the letters tightened. Dawning on him, he frantically looked through all the papers, not wanting to believe what had just dawned on him at that very moment. Slapped right in between the pieces of paper was an old photograph. There, was the most beautiful man he had ever seen. His face looked like he was sculpted by the gods. His jaw was defined, eyes were bright with youth, his face was small and alluring, and right below one of his eye, right next to his nose, was three moles. Three moles just the way Ong Seongwoo had described it over the phone, just like a constellation. He smiled through the photo just like how Daniel had imagined Seongwoo would have smiled at him in real life. Unable to hold back, teardrops fell onto the dated photograph. It was him.

As much as Daniel didn’t want to to think it was true. Ong Seongwoo was a man from 1978, Daniel was a man from 2018. They talked on the same days, at the same time, in the same place, but in different decades. They were never meant to cross paths, if it weren’t for that red telephone that connected both of them in the most unconventional way - through time. That was why Seongwoo could never find Daniel in the coffee shop, that was why Daniel could never cross by the boy in the red shirt and blue denim jacket. 

It was only then he remembered the clothing he had taken out from the boxes, all lined and folded next to the box. The first piece of clothing on top of the pile - a denim jacket. Daniel couldn’t process how he was feeling. He dropped to the floor, and he broke. The tears rolling down his face uncontrollably. Crawling nearer to the pile of clothes, he grabbed the denim jacket on the top pile, clenching onto the piece of clothing, bringing it to his heart, only wishing there was actually someone there, wearing it, a warm body patting his back, whispering softly how much he loved him. 

Seongwoo must have felt even worse. Unable to comprehend why Daniel had missed their meeting today, waiting for hours for Daniel to just call out his name. But it didn’t happen, it couldn’t happen. He must have felt everything Daniel was feeling. Hurt, abandoned, pained. Daniel couldn’t let that happen, he just couldn’t. Stumbling up, Daniel grabbed the red telephone that had been thrown into the box, and rushed back into his room, hurriedly plugging it back it, and dialling the number which he had learnt to heart. Daniel held his breath, praying that he would pick up. 

“hello?”

**Author's Note:**

> AU in which Ong Seongwoo and Kang Daniel are connected through the landline, in the same place, same time, but wrong decade. 
> 
> thank you for lasting till here! l really appreciate comments and kudos, it keeps me going :) if you're somehow interested...you can find me on twitter @ https://twitter.com/peachyminty


End file.
